Elon Musk, Travis Kalanick, Indra Nooyi to Join Presidential Advisory Council - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-forum-idUSKBN1431KU <comment><USER2> So many of the comments here have to do with "his position keeps changing"

I'm not defending Trump personally - but as a concept, lets dig into this a bit.

So someone gets into a position of gaining a vast amount of knowledge over a short period of time from experts and consultants...

Do you expect that their perspective hasn't shifted, or that they will stick to their guns no matter what?

Because that's politics as usual - ignoring new evidence an voting/acting in a manner to support your original stance... never changing (especially drastically)

But isn't the way it should be just this - that new information should inform your decision and, if you're open minded, you should consider changing your stance if the new information supports it?

I'd take someone who changes their mind with new information over someone who sticks their fingers in their ear when information that opposes their viewpoint comes to their attention. Even if their decisions are in disagreement with me, their ability to change their stance says that they are at least making those decisions as opposed to having those decisions decided by what party label they strap on their chest...

<comment><USER3> It's an odd time when someone is criticized for changing their mind based on new or changing information.

<comment><USER4> Changing your mind based on new information is excellent. We should all strive to do this.

Constantly changing your mind based on nothing in particular beyond whoever you talked to last is not the same thing, though.

Trump appears to have no real opinions. He says whatever he last heard, or whatever he thinks the people he's talking to want to hear. For example, he used to be pro-choice. When he started running for President he suddenly became anti-abortion. And not just anti-abortion, but hardcore anti-abortion, talking about jailing women who obtain them. When everybody on his side recoiled from this, he instantaneously backpedaled.

Or take climate change, for example. During the campaign he maintained that it was nonsense, a Chinese hoax, etc. After the election, when interviewed by the New York Times, he said "I think there is some connectivity" between human activity and climate change. And after that, he continued to build an administration utterly hostile to doing anything about it. All while explicitly citing climate change as a danger when e.g. applying for permits to build sea walls for his property.

Pick just about any position Trump has expressed, and you'll see this pattern. He changes constantly, and not based on a careful evaluation of new information, but just whatever the environment happens to be at that moment.

<comment><USER5> This probably means he's lying and he doesn't give two fucks about the country. Just get power no matter the means.

<comment><USER6> Have we had Presidents who couldn't have been described thus? Not in my lifetime.

<comment><USER7> Most of them only lie try to blatantly lie about important things (Or at least, when they feel like there's something resembling a fig leaf they can cover up with.)

He lies just about every time he speaks. We really should not be listening to anything this man says.

There is no point to performing Kremlinology on Trump. There is no consistent narrative, there are no secret subtexts to his utterances, that can be gleaned through careful inspection and comparison. He says whatever comes to mind, which is usually the most expedient thing to say at that particular moment.

<comment><USER4> That's what worries me about Trump. If he merely lusted for power and was willing to lie to obtain it, like a normal politician, it wouldn't bug me as much. Not that this is _good_ , but it's something we can deal with.

I'm not sure it's even fair to say that Trump lies. He's outright incoherent. The words are just meaningless. Is it even a lie if there's no underlying intent? Consider, for example:

"I don't want to have guns in classrooms although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly, because teachers are, you know, things that are going on in our schools are unbelievable, you look at some of our schools, unbelievable what's going on – but I'm not advocating guns in classrooms, but remember, in some cases, and a lot of people have made this case, teachers should be able to have guns, trained teachers should be able to have guns in classrooms."

A normal politician might come out in favor of banning guns from school, then later on say that teachers should be allowed to have guns. That might be a rational change of of heart based on new information, or a response to big sacks of money dropped off by the NRA, or an attempt to pander to a new voter base. But when the change comes _in the same freakin ' sentence_ you just can't make anything of it.

I'm not worried that Trump will cause problems because of a lust for power and willingness to lie, I'm worried that he'll cause problems because he seems to be entirely detached from reality.

This is why I'm glad to see these people advising him. Maybe they can influence him in good directions. But I'm not terribly optimistic, because I'm sure Steve Bannon and friends will cancel it out and more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> (from the press release)

      > Members of the [President's Strategic and Policy Forum] will be charged with
      > providing their individual views to the President — informed by their unique
      > vantage points in the private sector — on how government policy impacts
      > economic growth, job creation and productivity. The Forum is designed to
      > provide direct input to the President from many of the best and brightest in
      > the business world in a frank, non-bureaucratic and non-partisan manner.

There are an initial 16 members on this council, all current or former business leaders.

I wonder if having both Musk and Kalanick on this council signals anything about Trump's position on driverless car regulation, or will otherwise influence it going forward.

<comment><USER9> The person he's appointed to be Transport Secretary, Elaine Chao, is very hands off (no pun intended) when it comes to regulation, which is likely to be a good sign for driverless cars.

<comment><USER10> no pun intended? what's the pun?

<comment><USER11> She's "hands off" when it comes to regulation, which may advantage cars that can drive with "hands off" the wheel.

<comment><USER10> Ah, I must be a bit dense this morning. I was wondering if she had lost her hands in an accident or something.

<comment><USER12> I missed it at first too, and started thinking: "I guess she has no hands maybe...?" Then I realized I'm an idiot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> SpaceX depends on government contracts and Elon's companies all seem to be intertwined somewhat financially,so it makes sense he would want to be close to the President.

Uber also heavily depends on gov policy with the contractor/employee debate. Uber is also heavily lobbying governments to privatize public transit which would benefit it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if they pushed for that new in-between employee/contractor designation that they've been claiming is necessary for the new economy.

<comment><USER14> SpaceX depends on government contracts far less than say ULA; so far SpaceX has had 17 successful private commercial launches and 15 successful government paid launches, and ULA has only had 1 private commercial flight on an Atlas rocket since 2010 (WorldView-3 Digital Globe). And to top it off ULA gets USD1B a year for flight readiness regardless of how many launches it makes (although this will probably go soon).

EDIT: company name fix.

<comment><USER13> He may depend less on gov contracts than ULA, but he still depends on them, so I'm not sure what point you're making. Not trying to be rude, I would just appreciate it if you would explain it to me, so I can understand what you mean.

<comment><USER15> I think its more of a response to the growing misconception that Elon's companies are exceptionally and fully dependent on government money in the form of contracts, loans, and tax breaks to its customers. This suggests the companies are being artificially kept afloat on the backs of the taxpayer and are not "good businesses". Reality is, of course, more complicated. SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity of course each benefit(ed) from the above, but not any more than their competitors and are not entirely dependent on them. Loans were paid back, contracts were competed and won fairly, tax breaks incentivize desired behavior and are common industry-wide in transportation/energy.

Your original comment _could_ imply that SpaceX is more dependent on the federal government than other launch providers, hitting a sensitive spot for those fighting the above misconception, but that's not the case. Governments have the money and motive to fly expensive satellites (or people) and are the biggest customers for nearly all launch providers.

<comment><USER13> I get that. There has been a lot of anti-Elon stuff published in the last 6 months.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> All these comments about Trump changing his mind or being swayed miss the obvious indicators that he's just following the Putin/Surkov strategy for creating a managed democracy. You destabilize the narrative coherency with opposing, even random, signals (meet with Al Gore, then appoint Rex Tillerson, add Kanye for good measure). As your opponents scramble for some logical imperative along the lines of received political/economic narratives, you dismantle the institutions that oppose you(both literal and civilly constructed), so you can rob and rule however you see fit.

<comment><USER17> I think that you're overestimating Trump's ability to dismantle institutions, even if we stipulate that he's a machiavellian schemer who's successfully sowing chaos among his opponents by "destabilizing the narrative coherency."

<comment><USER16> Institutions in the United States, because of our size and emphasis on Federalism, have always existed in a tenuous position from the beginning. Throughout our history, we have seen the large parts of the judiciary, criminal justice system, and in practice, whole state governments collapse in pursuit of things like racial and economic inequity (robber barons, civil rights era south, populist leaders like Huey Long, Mafia control of Providence). By fanning the flames of racial and religious intolerance, as well as economic populism, Trump has set the stage for a similar collapse under whatever local conditions most conveniently serve his interests. Maybe in Arizona, we have to suspend the rule of law because the immigration situation is out of control, in West Virginia it's because of economic conditions, New York is at risk from terrorism. All of these circumstances have some truth to them, which is why the make great pretexts.

<comment><USER17> And yet, Joe Arpaio lost re-election, New York is still reliably and deeply blue, and it is still the case that nobody at all cares about West Virginia.

If the US is in fact constantly on the brink of collapse, it sure is a wonder we made it this far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The more non-sycophants advising Trump the better, I suppose. Maybe Elon can move Trump a bit on global warming?

<comment><USER19> FWIW, Trump stated in a recent interview that he would keep an "open mind" on climate change. He was probably informed by his advisers that climate change is real.

<comment><USER20> His policies seem to change based on who is in the room with him, so I guess it's best to get the right people in that room.

<comment><USER21> Except that's not how protecting the environment works. You can't undo damage to the environment as easily as you can destroy it. So if in one minute he thinks its ok to do something destructive, in the next minute it will be too late to undo that.

Please keep this in mind.

This applies to other areas of life as well. If you are an undocumented child living in this country. You can't have a normal life if all you know is that Trump might change his mind. You will forever live in fear. That's not fair to anyone.

<comment><USER20> Oh, I don't disagree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I remember Elon tweeting "Anything but Trump" when someone asked about his thoughts on twitter. Seems that tweet is deleted.

<comment><USER23> It bothers me that Twitter is frequently considered an original source, and yet comments can be deleted willy-nilly. It's too close to 1984-esque Newspeak. The HN model seems much better: You can only delete comments for some amount of time after initially posting; after that, they're fixed in stone.

(But I am glad this new council is somewhat bipartisan!)

<comment><USER24> So is this when someone makes a HN post about how he's developing a block- chain based, distributed Twitter alternative?

<comment><USER22> No need it's already here - [https://steemit.com/](https://steemit.com/) . But i haven't looked how it really works under hood. Given recent events with CEO of reddit who did edit negative post about him [1] it becomes more and more actual.

[1]:( [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reddit-ceo-edits-user- co...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reddit-ceo-edits-user- comments_us_5839cf32e4b000af95ee5b68) ).

<comment><USER25> I didn't know that one, I did use [http://twister.net.co/](http://twister.net.co/) some time ago (and gave up because of the chicken/egg effect).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can Elon, Travis influence Trump's policies in any meaningful way by being part of the PAC?

A lot of Trumps plans such as opening up fossil fuel reserves, not believing in climate change (though Trump said he would keep an open mind in a recent interview), going hard on immigration go directly against what Silicon Valley stands for. Will it be possible to influence Trump's plans on these issues? I remain skeptical.

<comment><USER26> I have a hunch Trump is influenced by whomever is standing in front of him at any given moment.

His attraction to wealth and celebrity might actually be beneficial to the tech scene here. The more he meets with people like Musk, Cook, Gates, hell even Kayne West, the better in my opinion.

Honestly, I think the Democrats could actually turn Trump into a left-leaning President given enough careful attention and subtle manipulation. The GOP has been in a mode of "our way or no way" the last eight years and it's a hard habit to break. It could backfire with Trump.

<comment><USER27> Given that Stephen Bannon will be the white house advisor, I don't see that happening. Trump seems to trust his advice the most.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Didn't see that one coming.

<comment><USER28> Yup. I was expecting tech elites to move to Europe or other liberal place and stick to principles.

<comment><USER29> Did any of the people in the article, specifically, claim they would move to Europe?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Just sent this note to Tesla Sales:

Please tell your CEO that he needs to focus on one thing at a time. Delivering the Tesla Model 3 as promised should be his ONLY priority. Activities such as serving on a Trump economic advisory panel or thinking about solar shingles are a distraction and a waste of his valuable time.

Thanks, Craig

(Model 3 reservation number xxxxxxxx)

<comment><USER31> If anyone on earth can multitask, it's him.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Hrm ok. I thought Elon was a smart man

<comment><USER33> And a smart man would know he has a lot to offer society by advising someone like Trump.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Please no more politics!

I thought we were on a one week long hiatus. If you have the ability, please down vote this article.

<comment><USER35> That experiment would have been over yesterday anyways.

<comment><USER34> It was wonderful to read about tech while it lasted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> now if he tapped up Elon musk to make the next air force one a reusable rocket that would be cool.

</comment><comment><USER37> Elon Musk explicitly said it would be disaster if Trump wins and now he is Trump advisor. Hypocrisy and love for money obviously Tr(i)umphed again.

<comment><USER38> Can you explain the hypocrisy?

Elon Musk has a couple of well defined, over-riding goals: to make humans a multi-planetary species and to see humanity move to sustainable power. To those ends he's fully committed. Making a lot of money is one necessary, interim step along the way. As is working with/coordinating with the US Government.

<comment><USER37> Hypocrisy means he is bad for country but sense he is now in power I'll join him to make my business better and now Trump is not so bad. Saying one thing and doing another is definition of hypocrisy.

<comment><USER38> > ... and now Trump is not so bad

I'm pretty sure most people's basic opinions of Trump haven't changed.

In fact, I think it's a pretty admirable trait to be willing to work with someone that you might personally detest in order to make the best of a bad situation. The easy but wrong thing thing is to refuse any cooperation if someone you don't like is in power. That's largely what the Republicans in the House have been doing for the past eight years. That's not a way forward, that just deepens divides and future gridlock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Space travel is an almost certain reality in the near future. If anything Trump wants to be first in line to open an elite casino and Trump Tower on Mars for the ultra wealthy. Elon can make it happen.

</comment><comment><USER40> I wonder if Mr. Trump will attend, he seems not terribly interested in briefings. Perhaps he will since they are business related instead of intelligence.

</comment><comment><USER41> Despite how cool Elon's companies are, don't forget for a moment that Elon Musk is just another crony capitalist who likes government money.

<comment><USER14> Let me fix that for you; "Elon Musk is just another capitalist who likes money."

Minor snark aside, Musk's companies have not availed of any government money that wasn't available to others. And in many cases Musk's companies weren't even the beneficiaries of said government money, quite often that money went to the purchasers of products made by Musk's companies (Tesla, electric car subsidies go to car owners, not manufacturers; Solar City, feed in payments go to the owners of the solar equipment (and yes I realise sometimes that is to finance companies and/or to Solar City)). In other cases like SpaceX they have competed for government contracts and won those contracts.

But at the end of the day Musk's companies typically attract less subsidies (Tesla / Solar vs other car companies / oil / gas / coal companies) or charge the government less for the same work than others (think ULA). So in effect they are better for the government's stated goals than a lot of other companies. And yet at the end of the day Musk's companies need money to survive and grow just like any other company; government or otherwise, and compared to many other companies in their respective arenas their revenue from government contracts can be substantially smaller pro rata.

So in the end Musk's companies will use whatever influence they can (this is called hustle in start ups), and they need money (and do whatever they can to avoid being solely dependent on government cash). And to top it off they actively support competition, even when they could afford to stand still and reduce the rate of innovation.

<comment><USER41> No argument that he is a Capitalist that likes money. Just emphasizing that he is a special type of Capitalist who is willing to engage closely with government to obtain benefits. The fact that other businesses in his industry may also obtain these benefits he lobbied for is in fact on the spectrum of cronyism in practice:

"Crony capitalism exists along a continuum. In its lightest form, crony capitalism consists of collusion among market players which is officially tolerated or encouraged by the government. While perhaps lightly competing against each other, they will present a unified front (sometimes called a trade association or industry trade group) to the government in requesting subsidies or aid or regulation." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism)

<comment><USER14> Actually the push for NASA to use commercial style contracting was started under President Regan (Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 and followed by further laws under G H W Bush in 1990), while Elon was at Pretoria Boys High School (Transvaal, South Africa); so to say that his lobbying had anything to do with NASA moving to awarding competed fixed price contracts for orbital services rather than using the previous cost plus model of contracting amounts to crony capitalism is entirely wide of the mark and bordering on wholly false.

EDIT: fixed grammar</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Personal life search App for Android. Sign up for private Alpha invites  - <AUTHOR>

www.friday-app.com <comment><USER2> Great application</comment>


Americans are afraid of autonomous cars - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/11/americans-are-afraid-of-autonomous-cars/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 <comment><USER2> I AM concerned about autonomous cars, however, I'm even more scared of human drivers. Texting, drunk driving, distracted driving, and so much more. We've seen the path of destruction. Can autonomous cars be worst that than? I doubt it</comment>


Just How Did Apple "Journalism" Get This Bad? - <AUTHOR> http://www.macgasm.net/2013/04/23/just-how-did-tech-journalism-get-this-bad/

<comment><AUTHOR> Let's be real... it's gotten pretty bad...</comment>


Google Unveils New Chrome Operating System for Business Customers - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/google-unveils-new-chrome-operating-system-for-business-customers/

<comment><USER2> So what I'm reading out of this is that Chrome OS will soon be able to run a Windows virtual machine locally? If so that's a pretty interesting development from a non-corporate perspective as well</comment>


Sovereign Citizens Helped Swindle $1B from the Government They Disavow - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/business/sovereign-citizens-financial-crime.html# <comment><USER2> This insanity is HUGE in American prisons. There was a book called (I think) "One Man Out" where the author describes a case where someon used Sovereign Citizen declarations to get themselves released from incarceration supposedly. This somehow spread to nearly every correctional facility in the country and because many inmates are mentally ill in some fashion they eat this up (and it's a possible Get Out of Jail Free card, and when you're serving 60+ years I'm sure you'd try damn near anything to be released). Usually this results in just a lot of talk about becoming sovereign citizens and getting, and getting the millions of dollars held in some secret bank account attached to your social security number... and ends with some idiot filing liens against the warden of the prison (not making this shit up) and then the prisons banning all Uniform Commercial Code reference books from the institutions. I don't remember why but something to do with the whole name in all caps means you're actually a corp of some flavor - social security card is a bank account - there's millions of dollars backing that SS number - you can file liens as a corp against the warden for restricting your corp's free trade or traveling rights or some such fuckery -- then the lien will force the warden by the laws of the UCC to let you out..... It's insane, even for prison. edit -- found an example of the lien's real effects: [https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc- xpm-2001-04-08-0...](https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc- xpm-2001-04-08-0104082166-story.html)

<comment> crooked-v This Canadian judge's ruling includes pretty much a full reference book on this kind of weird stuff and its attempted application to court systems (Canadian and U.S.), which he calls "Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument": [https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012a...](https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.html)

<comment><USER2> oh man, labeling the preachers of this as "gurus" is perfect -- it's always one pseudo-intellectual convincing a group of followers lol. This really is the most organized and comprehensive summary for rebutting this nonsense in court that I've ever seen. I thought it was only an American issue... huh. It has to be exhausting dealing w/delusional people.

<comment><USER2> "vexatious litigants" \-- lmfao

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Sovereigns, who sometimes call themselves "freemen" or "state citizens," > have no foundational document, but broadly they subscribe to an alternate > version of American history. The tale can vary from sovereign to sovereign, > but it goes roughly like this: At some point, a corporation secretly usurped > the United States government, then went bankrupt and sought aid from > international bankers. As collateral, the corporation offered the financiers > … us. As sovereigns tell it, your birth certificate and Social Security card > are not benign documents, but contracts that enslave you.

<comment><USER4> The summary is slightly inadequate. There wasn't a corporation that usurped the government - the government made corporations of everyone

Basically it goes like this -

* SSN Act (created after the market crash) was created not only to provide faux "retirement" accounts but also "incorporate" every citizen of the country as a company upon birth.

* New baby John Smith instantiates company JOHN SMITH with account 123-45-6789

* ALL banking and financials go through your company account JOHN SMITH (check your checks, statements, loans). This included Liens, child support, taxes, alimony, etc.

* The line you sign your name on your check is not actually a line but very tiny "Authorized Representative" IE: John Smith is acting on behalf of JOHN SMITH

Why?

Because Feds didn't have the power to enact laws on individual citizens at the time. So they created companies out of every citizen which they can then force to pay into Social Security (among other things). This has evolved over time granting the government the power much more power over individuals through their "shell companies"

Some sovereign citizens claim to be able to gain sole control over their shell corporation JOHN SMITH and with that all government encroachments on their rights via liens and taxes are invalid.

Disclaimer: I have no position on this conspiracy theory just providing a better summary

<comment><USER5> I've always been impressed by an odd contrast within theories of this sort. The theories posit that the government acted illegally in various ways. But at the same time, the theories posit that despite this, there is some deeper framework of law that the government still has to obey. Yet what force would cause this deeper law to prevail if the state was committed to its conspiracy?

Of course, this sort of thing could only appeal in the US, where a lot of the laws aren't product of a giant conspiracy but rather a complex patchwork of local, state and federal strictures, so a spew of incoherent legal nonsense takes a given court office a while to deal with.

<comment><USER6> I dunno. Germany has the same kind of thing. Search for "Reichsbürger". Essentially these people reject the modern German nation, and say they belong to one reich or another - either the Kaiserreich or the Nazi one.

What these conspiracy people don't get is that a nation exists as a consequence of its subjects and warriors loyalty to it and obedience of it. It's just a power structure. All the legalities and voting and bureaucracy around it are just there because it's much easier for everyone to live with a power structure that behaves predictably, justly and generally nicely. But the legalities are not actually necessary. At the core the answer to "Why?" is "Because we can".

Note that I'm generally pro-government. I'd rather have one nice power structure to deal with than a world operating after the rules of school, where I have to protect my lunch money myself. This is just reality.

<comment><USER7> Or as attorney Leonard French said regarding one Sovereign Citizen case on his Lawful Masses podcast[0]:

"We live in reality, where the four laws are not common law, statutory, code and... whatever. The real laws are the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, the electromagnetic force, and gravity. Everything else is fair game."

[0][https://youtu.be/nqPiQiinDTs?t=3143](https://youtu.be/nqPiQiinDTs?t=3143)

<comment><USER8> The list is not exhaustive, we're looking for loopholes all the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There's an amazing exposition of the whole Sovereign Citizen thing from several years back by a Canadian justice's ruling in "Meads v. Meads": [https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012a...](https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.html)

It covers a lot of ground -- lots of contextual information -- and is quite long, but readable (and entertaining).

</comment><comment><USER10> While I think the "sovereign movement" is pretty laughable in both theory and action - I think this article smacks of a total lack of even attempting to understand where these people are coming from. It's the same people that write these articles that are surprised by the vitriol directed at the press or "how trump won"

The real question is what is driving these people to behave in such an irrational way? Might it be the ever increasing reach of government into people's lives or the fact that many in positions of power in the US seem to think of that the people should serve the government rather than the government serving the people...

<comment> crooked-v > The real question is what is driving these people to behave in such an > irrational way?

From what I understand, a substantial part of it is scam artists taking advantage of people who fundamentally lack understanding about the legal system. See this judge's ruling that contains a substantial guide on the subject, and look at the section "The OPCA Guru": [https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012a...](https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The FBI definitely considers them a domestic terrorism movement, for some time. [https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2010/april/so...](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2010/april/sovereigncitizens_041310/domestic- terrorism-the-sovereign-citizen-movement)

</comment><comment><USER12> They do this under the rubric of "bleeding the beast" as they put it. The FLDS did this too, and it's a pretty common, and massively self-serving tactic of many fringe groups. Personally I like it, because it opens a path for legal sanctions irrespective of the groups ideology or religion. They can believe whatever crazy shit they want, but fraud and tax evasion are still crimes.

</comment><comment><USER13> Enjoy this video of sovereign citizens running headfirst into reality: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUgmc7kKqOI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUgmc7kKqOI)

<comment><USER14> I love the Australian one, the guys think that having a rental car means they can break any laws, and then when they're stopped they say "Am I under arrest?" as if it's the magic words that make the cops go away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Reminds me of Joel osteen

<comment><USER16> Go on…

<comment><USER15> in that it's a con

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is kind of related, but someone told me yesterday that if you move to Puerto Rico you pay 0 federal personal income tax (note: if you live anywhere else in the world as a US citizen you still pay taxes on your income), and although they have their own taxation system it's basically 0 for newcomers because they want to attract investment.

If I want to sell a large chunk of capital gains in a single year, is there anything stopping me from moving to PR for 6months+1 day to a year and paying nothing on it?

<comment><USER18> Look up Act 20 and Act 22.

It's not just "take a vacation in PR for 183 days". You have hoops to jump through and need to _actually move_ there. I think cap gains rate becomes 4% on the PR part, with some amount of apportioning between PR and prior gains.

<comment><USER17> What kind of hoops? If you're going to do a single transaction for $500k+ that is a huge difference...

<comment><USER18> Seriously, read up on Act 20 and 22 (whichever applies). Don't take random 2-minute internet blurbs on it. You enter into a contract with Puerto Rico, you move there, you make required donations, comply with the other rules as required.

Set aside several evenings to do the basic reading, then if still interested, engage in a PR-based expert counsel to ensure you both understand and that you do everything correctly.

For me, it would only make sense if the amount in question was mid 7 figures if you're just doing it for taxes and didn't otherwise want to live in PR.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > Rich people find loopholes. Why not us?

and rich corporations, too. indeed, why not us?

<comment> crooked-v The difference is that the loopholes rich people use generally actually exist, while the "loopholes" advertised by sovereign citizens are obvious nonsense like "by filing the right paperwork I can make the government give me a million dollars they're keeping in a secret bank account for a government- created corporation that's named after me except with all caps".</comment></comment>


Beyond Interactive: Notebook Innovation at Netflix - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/notebook-innovation-591ee3221233 <comment><USER2> Read this the other day. I don't see why Netflix needed to build nteract. JupyterLab has great extensibility (albeit very under-documented).</comment>


The Danger of Daily Aspirin - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704511304575075701363436686.html <comment><USER2> It's an optimization problem:

The positive side is the decreased risk of heart problems.

The negative side is the increased risk of stomach problems.

If you are at a low risk for heart problems, the negatives generally out-weigh the positives. If you are at a high risk for heart problems, the positives might out-weigh the negatives, since heart problems are more likely to be fatal than stomach problems.

According to TFA, recommendations for daily aspirin are too common.

</comment><comment><USER3> I take ibuprofen every day, because I get a headache every day. 2 GP's and a psychiatrist have told me this is no big deal, but stories like this always bother me.

<comment><USER4> Have you tried stopping for a while?

<comment><USER3> I've tried just persisting through them but never lasted more than 2 weeks. Though every few months, they'll stop for maybe a week, and then come back. Caffeine makes them less bad, which is annoying because I don't like the energy swings, but every time I give up caffeine the headaches get worse (not just immediately after, but even a month after)

<comment><USER4> That's a really bad problem to have :( Do you know what's causing them?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have Samter's triad and would benefit from daily aspirin use (325mg+), but the side-effects concern me and my default position is to avoid medication.

</comment><comment><USER6> It would make more sense to me to just reduce the dose rather than cut it out completely. Maybe just take one every other day or 3-4 times a week.

<comment><USER7> By what rationale does that make more sense? The argument presented in the article is that for most people, the side-effects outweigh the protective benefits. How do you know that your suggestive diminishes the side effects to the point that even people who have a low risk for heart problems will have a net benefit?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> For years I've taken two 325mg aspirin once or twice a week rather than take the small 81 mg each day. Works better for me.

<comment><USER9> ... How do you know it works better?

<comment><USER8> For some reason it doesn't bother my stomach as does the daily 81 mg dose. Also, I usually get a headache at least once or twice a week and taking two aspirin always helps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Breaking News: Even drugs you're familiar with have side-effects. More at eleven.

<comment><USER11> There's a comment like this for every article. Maybe someday al-Qaeda terrorists will genetically engineer a plague virus that turns everybody into "28 Days Later"-style zombies. Somebody will be here saying, "breaking news - Islamists don't like us."

This is actually a little more significant than finding some side effects. It means that the daily aspirin they've been telling us to take for decades may actually be worse than useless.

<comment><USER12> Which "they" are you referring to who has been telling you for decades to take aspirin? The drug companies, the media, or your own doctor?

The only one of those three that I would actually listen to, my personal physician, has never once suggested that I take aspirin daily, surely because I'm not a high risk for heart disease or stroke.

I'm curious if it really is common for physicians to blindly prescribe aspirin. The article itself doesn't specifically identify any case where a patient was prescribed daily aspirin. It sounds like the people mentioned decided on their own to start taking it.

<comment><USER11> I actually looked this up earlier, and here's the summary: In 2002, guidelines from some government agency said that people whose risk of heart disease outweighed their risk of bleeds should take it. Essentially this meant most men over 40. At the time, there was no evidence that daily aspirin decreased total mortality. In 2009, they revised it to exclude a lot more people because of the risk of bleeds. Now maybe they'll exclude even more people. I'm not going to dig the sources up again, but that's what I found.

I don't know how long they've been telling people to take it, but I know my dad was taking it in the 80s. His risk factors were being a man in his 40s and mild hypertension.

This fits in with a pattern in which doctors jump to conclusions and tell everybody to do something which turns out to be useless or harmful based on scanty evidence.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Adobe Releases Open Source Font for Coding - <AUTHOR> http://sourceforge.net/blog/adobe-announces-source-code-font/

<comment><USER2> Font is pretty well done, but it misses lots of unicode characters. One would argue that they are not needed, when writing source, but I'd like to disagree - I expect my editor to display as much different characters, as possible. I'm using Consolas with ST2. It displays almost everything.</comment>


Querying Time Series in PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> http://no0p.github.io/postgresql/2014/05/08/timeseries-tips-pg.html <comment><USER2> Apologies for the self-plug, but you can have a play around with some of PG's date/time functionality by going to [http://pgexercises.com/questions/date/](http://pgexercises.com/questions/date/)

<comment><USER3> I liked the puzzles. I've mostly been looking at the date category. Could you mention that a slot is 30 minutes somewhere in the question at [http://pgexercises.com/questions/date/endtimes.html](http://pgexercises.com/questions/date/endtimes.html)?

<comment><USER2> Good idea - I'll add it to my to-do list :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Really interesting read. Anyone got any comparison between the performance of these against say pandas or R[1]? I'd be particularly interested if anyone has stored multiple timeseries in a table and the performance of looking for individual or the latest timeseries.

[1]: I haven't used R myself.

<comment><USER5> I don't have as much experience with pandas, but I've used window functions and psql queries in place of that sort of data munging for production web applications. We have tens of millions of rows and near real time reporting requirements.

Reach out if you want to compare notes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is pretty cool, I didn't know about window functions in Postgres. Most of the time when dealing with time series data I end up dropping into Python (pandas) or R (xts package), but it is nice to see how to do a lot of analysis right in the database.

</comment><comment><USER7> Heh, some of the queries we do at work are pretty much exactly like the ones in the examples. Postgres is cool.</comment>


Ask HN: What do I do now that Apple Macs suck? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
First, let me say that I'm a lifelong Apple fanboi. I had an Apple II near my bunk bed growing up. I went through the Clone wars of the 90s and was always a loyal Mac User. I was using OS 9 when everyone else was on Windows XP.
I say with the deepest sadness that the current Mac lineup doesn't fit my needs anymore. I have 6 monitors and I'm unapologetic about it - yup I just like a lot of monitors - now let it go.
I can either buy a MacPro trash can that hasn't been upgraded in 3.5 years and that is a shining example of Apple embarrassment on my desk. Or I can buy some unnecessarily thin MacBook Pro that has nothing "pro" about it.
What do I do??
I'm not willing to give up on OSX yet. I use the CLI extensively but don't want Linux and Windows is incompatible to my software development workflow.
I've built my own Hackintoshes in the past but as my Mac is my source of income and salary - I couldn't put up with the downtime that came with OSX upgrades every month (which is necessary to keep up with what Xcode mandates)
Is there any off the shelf x86 laptop/desktop that just works with OSX?
Please help HN... you're my only hope
-- Typed with my thumbs on my phone. Please excuse any terrible grammar <comment><USER2> Using one of the guides[1], I believe they have recommended parts lists, but you'll probably need a different audio card, or usb audio, if that isn't huge to you. Network support is another issue... only upgrade your OS and primary apps once a year, and plan ahead for it.

I'm probably just going to jump ship and go back to Windows or Linux for my next laptop... I'm running a 2014 rMBP for my laptop, I also have a windows desktop and a linux htpc. I find windows isn't so bad, when you install git for windows, you get most of the linux tools you're used to and even get a decent bash shell.

Don't bother with the linux subsystem for windows at this point, or the windows native docker... stick to the docker that uses linux containers if you're into that. I've also found that running a linux VM with samba shares and a couple ssh shells works nicely.. I can edit in windows, run in linux, and it just works.

If you're doing mac specific things that won't help, but the part guide should be an okay starting point... you won't get absolutely new hardware, but shouldn't be too horrible. As to the screens.. have you considered dual 4k displays?

[1] [https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/october/2016/](https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/october/2016/)

</comment><comment><USER3> If you have to work with MacOS you have to stick with Apple hardware even if you think it sucks. Maybe you should slowly steer your business to a more vendor neutral workflow and finally jump ship when you are comfortable with it. For example you might start using tools that are available also on Linux and Windows. I switched from Windows to Linux 7 years ago when I was using only open source cross platform tools and I was developing for Linux servers anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Microsoft seems to be doing an amazing job of being comtabile with Linux CLI lately, but it seems like they are still years away from parity.

I make iOS apps, so migrating away is gonna be hard

<comment><USER3> In that case the best you can do is keep a Mac for coding and building those iOS apps and buy another laptop for everything else you do, if you don't only do apps. Move everything off the Mac so that it won't be your primary platform or you'll still be locked into Apple.

Years ago I was about to have to do some iOS app for a customer and I was considering buying a Mac Mini especially for that project. But I would have kept everything else on my Ubuntu laptop from HP. The Mac would have been on only to code the apps. Then I found somebody else to do those apps for me and I saved a lot of money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel the same way. I have been waiting out for Apple to wake from their slumber and release something professional. As much as I hate to accept this, Apple has given up on us. It is time to say our goodbyes and move on.

On a more positive note the new Microsoft Surface Book looks rather nice.

</comment><comment><USER5> Build a hackintosh, should be able to find ideal parts on the internet quite easy there are tons of guides. I do suggest you to make the move to windows though, slowly if you can.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the response. I ran a Hackintosh for 2 years. It was a pain. I ended up selling it off on EBay

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How many screens can you connect using USB Type-C?</comment>


Brad Feld to write foreword for the book Accelerate - <AUTHOR> http://howtowriteabusinessplan.com/2013/03/brad-feld-will-be-writing-the-foreword-for-our-book-accelerate-on-kickstarter/ <comment><USER2> Great news - congrats on everything Luke!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Jess! Amazing to have Brad Feld involved.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is awesome! Can't wait to read it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> great news!</comment>


First-To-Market Products That Lost - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/10-first-to-market-companies-that-lost-out-to-latecomers-2009-11 <comment><USER2> That rumored-for-years, never-confirmed-to-exist Apple tablet is just such a colossus that people are already predicting that the Kindle will be the next Betamax!

Other than that bold prediction at the end, a solid article. The succinct takeaway lesson from each product was a nice touch.

<comment><USER3> I agree that the Apple tablet thing is funny.

But.. The Kindle prediction is I think more about convergence then any specific Kindle killer. Will the average train passenger in 2015 own a Dell, a Chromebook, an ?? tablet, an iphone _and_ a Kindle?

All of those four seem like they would be higher on an average person's shopping list. All four can be used to to Kindle like things. All four are getting better at doing Kindle like things. All four have the potential to introduce killer features that Kindle probably can't match. If someone already has 3 of the above, will they still get a Kindle?

What I think this type of thinking fails to consider is price. Kindle's might reach a point of 'perfection' pretty soon. IE, new models don't make old models obsolete, maybe. Kindle doesn't need more hard disk, memory, processing power. It's job stay the same. This means that Moore's Law and it's cousins can work on bringing down the price rather then improving the product. If the Kindle was $69, and marginally nicer to read some things on, regular people might still get one.

<comment><USER2> We can cut down even further from your list. Why carry around a cell phone when your laptop already has a 3G wireless card? When you want to make a phone call, you can just open up your laptop and fire up Skype!

If that sounds like a really cumbersome and painful user experience for many situations in which you currently use your cell phone, people who read really really religiously feel the same way about using a laptop or smartphone instead of a Kindle (or printed media).

The Kindle is and will continue to be a more niche product than laptops or phones. Not many people are serious readers. But for those who are, the user experience on a laptop, netbook, or smartphone can't compare, mostly because of form factor an eyestrain.

That's why I think only a tablet represents a serious threat to disrupt Kindle. Whether it's the mythical Apple tablet or the CrunchPad (RIP) or some other device that is actually built, if they manage to make a device that performs well in brightly-lit conditions, they can probably replace Kindle.

I suspect that in the next decade the average consumer will have three devices: One in a laptop form factor (with most having cheap netbooks running Chrome or another thin-client OS, and some power users having more traditional laptops), a phone, and a tablet or kindle-type device. The tablet or Kindle is ideal for reading and consuming media, the phone perfect for making calls, and the physical keyboard of the laptop necessary to get real work done.

Perhaps you could see some combinations, like a tablet that attaches to or connects wirelessly to a keyboard which eliminates the need for the laptop, or the phone just becoming a wireless headset interfacing with one of the other devices (maybe my opening question wasn't so implausible after all!). Frankly those combinations all sound pretty cumbersome and inelegant, so as long as all three devices are cheap and compact, having all three won't be a big deal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Quibbles:

First off, I wouldn't exactly say that Netscape lost, given that it is the grandfather of Firefox. Yet, of course, Firefox is still in 2nd place...

Atari - Come on, guys. Atari ruled that genera throughout the entire first wave of game consoles. When Atari died, so did the entire game console market, not to be revived until the NES.

Everquest - Totally not true. They ruled the genera, again, for a long long time.

Palm - Same thing. When they were hot, they were hot, and it took a long time for Windows Mobile to unseat them.

Technology goes through seasons. In that regard, NO first-to-market technologies ever "wins" forever.

<comment><USER3> Palm ruled while the market was a marginal market with huge future potential. Now that handhelds are an everybody product & a huge market, palm is marginal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For those of you who are like me and that type of format (a product a page? Ugh), the ten products are:

Friendster

Palm

Netscape

Webcrawler & friends

Tivo

Saehan and Rio [mp3 players]

Betamax

Atari

Everquest

Kindle

<comment><USER6> Wordsworth.com, which started two years before Amazon <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000044.html></comment></comment>


Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on Health Care - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/upshot/us-health-care-expensive-country-comparison.html?smid=tw-upshotnyt&smtyp=cur&_r=0 <comment><USER2> Because health comes first, a great nation can't compromise with it

<comment><USER3> That's a nice belief. How does it explain things like:

"U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries" \- [https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s- healthc...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare- ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/#71cdf6f4576f) .

"Ranking 37th — Measuring the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System" \- [http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0910064](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0910064)

"The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country — but not with better health outcomes" \- [http://beta.latimes.com/nation/la-na-healthcare- comparison-2...](http://beta.latimes.com/nation/la-na-healthcare- comparison-20170715-htmlstory.html)

If heath comes first, why don't we have better healthcare for all that money we spend on it?</comment></comment>


Collection of Jupyter notebooks for quantitative finance - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cantaro86/Financial-Models-Numerical-Methods <comment><USER2> Another useful resource, albeit more beginner level - Quant Economy course. It has both Julia[1] and Python[2] flavors. Recently they even added a small introduction to the data science[3]. And all of this - open-source project at GitHub[4]!

[1] [https://julia.quantecon.org/](https://julia.quantecon.org/)

[2] [https://python.quantecon.org/](https://python.quantecon.org/)

[3] [https://datascience.quantecon.org/](https://datascience.quantecon.org/)

[4] [https://github.com/QuantEcon/](https://github.com/QuantEcon/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I just worked on a project to predict significant(greater than 3 std) changes in the market and my biggest pain point was the lack of open source resources for quantitative finance(QF). It makes sense given the industry, but then I remind myself QF brought us Pandas!

Thank you for making this publicly available.

<comment><USER4> It's interesting that open source lives off transparency and equality (e.g. with git, anyone can at least start to put a patch together), whereas many other vital parts of society like finance, business, politics only work, when you explicitly do not share, what you know.

<comment><USER5> This is why computer science has evolved so fast, especially over the last 20 years, because of the open aspect of the code.

<comment><USER6> open source finance is crypto. arbitrage provides information everyone can use.

Practical example: get free price every minute from cryptomarketplot.com/api.json then you can figure out the EUR/USD spot using BTC/USD and BTC/EUR without ever needing yahoo finance or anything

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One thing to keep in mind before starting any finance project is the efficient market hypothesis. In order for you to make a profit relative to the market, you must by definition be better at modeling than everyone else. (There are certain caveats in terms of liquidity and leverage, but the general theme is correct).

I'll only note that beating everyone else is quite challenging, especially when you are competing against very well funded trading firms.

EDIT: Slight fix of wording as suggested by comment below.

<comment><USER8> What you're saying is not what EMH says at all. EMH posits that there is only one Sharpe ratio: the market Sharpe. In other words, I cannot earn better risk adjusted returns than the market.

But anyways, no one actually believes that. EMH is used as a framework to price securities and as a way to reason about the market. Quant finance doesn't work without the no arbitrage condition and therefore, EMH. EMH has absolutely nothing to do with "making a profit." If fact, quant finance and EMH are built on a sure fire way to make a profit: the risk-free rate.

In short, while alpha is, by definition, a zero sum game, beta is not. So we can make profit pretty easily, and this is what most of the world does: obtain exposure to beta and make money.

<comment><USER7> Correct. I should have been explicit. By "profit", I meant profit relative to the market.

I do agree that the EMH doesn't exactly hold. Empirical proof of that is the existence of profitable trading firms. However, the reasoning behind EMH does imply something about the difficulty of earning profit relative to the market. And I do think it is a theory that people should be aware of when they start trying to understand finance.

<comment><USER9> Isn't the whole point of these forms arbitrage?

There is lots of data that shows that active managers don't do better than the market.

<comment><USER10> No, there is a lot of evidence showing that _most_ active managers, investors and analysts can't outperform the market. There are counterexamples which demonstrate consistent outperformance, they're just the minority. Likewise most basketball players aren't good enough to join the NBA, and most players in the NBA aren't good enough to secure $10 - 100 million contracts.

The EMH doesn't even preclude the possibility of consistently beating the market (consistently mining alpha); it simply states that the cost of providing those investments as a service rationally rises to cannibalize the outsized returns, so it becomes a wash.

We see this in practice: the well known hedge funds which demonstrate consistent alpha eventually close their doors to outside investors. Why pool risk with external capital when you're printing money? Investors are a hassle and no strategy can scale infinitely. When you can consistently mine alpha it's strictly better to just become a prop shop and run on your own money.

<comment><USER9> How do you differetiate a manager that outperforms by luck from one that outperforms by skill. Data shows that managers that outperformed in the past are not more likely to outperform in the future.

<comment><USER10> You keep talking about this data, but you're not citing any of it. Therefore I'm not sure how to specifically counter what you've read.

But in the abstract, you differentiate them the same way you implement any hypothetical distinguisher in probability theory. Consider an n-sigma event observed to occur consistently. As n increases the likelihood of the event occurring by chance (rather than agency) decreases.

<comment><USER9> [https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/more-evidence-that-its- really...](https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/more-evidence-that-its-really-hard- to-beat-the-market-over-time-92-of-finance-professionals-cant-do-it-2/)

There are so few managers that beat the market and then it might still be luck. Until you can be sure that a manager really is concistently better than the market he will be in his sixties.

We know factors that concistently outperform the market. So why not passively follow them?

<comment><USER10> _There are so few managers that beat the market and then it might still be luck._

This is a naive way of doing the analysis, because we have examples of funds whose performance is so many standard deviations beyond the mean that we wouldn't expect them to arise by chance even if every single business in the United States was a professional trading firm. To get you started, I invite you to consider Renaissance Technologies, as one example. [1]

 _We 'll assume that trading returns have a binary distribution. Traders win or lose with equal probability. This is not a great model, but it's good for making ballpark estimates, because it overestimates the odds of a track record like Renaissances.

RenTec's Medallion fund has not had a down year in the past 25. The odds of this are at most 1 in 33 million, using our binary model. Survivorship bias does not begin to explain this; there have not been anything resembling 33 million hedge funds over the course of history. I think 30000 hedge funds is a fairly generous estimate._ [2]

In order to account for Renaissance's 30 year record of 70% returns before fees (and 40% after fees) under your hypothesis, we need to advance the claim that Renaissance has been successfully conducting massive fraud and financial conspiracy with a resulting profit north of over one hundred billion dollars over three decades. Even the common citation of the IRS case with the Deutsche basket options doesn't even begin to control for those kinds of returns; there would have to be something fundamentally novel criminal conspiracy occurring in Long Island.

Of course, you can still try to defend that position. But it makes the claim significantly more complex than simply saying, "most managers don't beat the market."

_______________

1\. There are others. TGS, Baupost, etc.

2\. This is copied from one of my favorite rebuttals of this point: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9860254](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9860254)

<comment><USER9> I get that there is a very small window for funds that have alpha. However they are of no use to the average investor. Either they are closed to new investors or they are open and the performance edge goes away after some not too long period. Which is also the reason they stay closed.

Stocks don't have a 50% chance of being up per year. It is more close to 80-90%. The size of the return however makes a really good case that Simons fund is better than the other managers at discovering prices.

[https://www.slickcharts.com/sp500/returns](https://www.slickcharts.com/sp500/returns)

I don't think we can be sure that Baupost's performance is not due to luck. Since 2001 it is reported to have an annual return of 9.4%, that is decent but not much above the market.

In the end, the average investor will not be able to invest in a fund that has consistent alpha. The alpha that a fund has will get smaller the bigger the fund gets. Just look at the recent performance of Berkshire Hathaway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Also useful is a Quant finance cheat sheet if you are going to sit an exam:

[https://github.com/daleroberts/math-finance-cheat- sheet](https://github.com/daleroberts/math-finance-cheat-sheet)

</comment><comment><USER12> Shameless plug, at Quantopian we have a bunch of materials (usually notebooks, sometimes also videos) covering introductory material in quant finance and Python: [https://www.quantopian.com/lectures](https://www.quantopian.com/lectures)

(I work at Quantopian)

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm always surprised at how people utilize Jupyter notebooks. What kinds of platforms/software do these firms use to perform the analysis?

<comment><USER14> It's a bit of a mess right now. AWS is eating this market but frankly their products are not that great. Their ETL tool which does parallel execution and all is called Glue which is a cloud version of Spark. Glue is supposed to integrate with SageMaker which is basically your standard jupyter notebook experience. Spark though not that intuitive and is not the tool data scientists use for exploration. So data scientists explore and build model and then they rebuild them to run in Spark. Basically we would need a way to seamlessly scale pandas or R dataframes across clusters. Dask looks promising but it is facing an uphill battle vs aws and company and their inferior but convenient tooling.

<comment><USER15> A friend of mine is trying to build the databricks of dask for exactly that reason.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Excellent, an area I am really interested in. Thank you for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is an incredible piece of work, kudos for releasing it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Holy shit this is literally gold. I just went through this paper ("porting" to python)

[https://epubs.siam.org/doi/abs/10.1137/s0036144500378302](https://epubs.siam.org/doi/abs/10.1137/s0036144500378302)

I was planning on moving on to his book but now I'll just read this. Kudos to you Nicola for putting in the work and then releasing. If I were you I would typeset this and approach publishers because I bet you would sell many copies.

edit: i'll take this opportunity to poll the audience: does anyone know a good explanation of girsanov? i know a fair amount of measure theory but i'm still looking for a good, detailed, practical explanation of its use in the context of changing to risk-free measure for black-scholes.

<comment><USER19> Are you looking for a proof of Girsanov's theorem or an explanation of how it is used to price? A good reference is Oksendal [0], but it's still quite tough going. As for how it's used, a good reference is Shreve's second volume [1], which also contains a proof of Girsanov's theorem. Joshi's book [2] is a little bit lighter on the mathematical rigour.

A quick explanation of how it's used:

Taking the stochastic differential equation for geometric Brownian motion, apply Girsanov's theorem to change measure via a drift change such that we now have a discounted stock price that is a martingale. The discounted stock price is the stock price divided by a short term bond or cash account asset. In this new measure the discounted short term bond/cash account asset is also trivially a martingale since it's being divided by itself. So we have that our two key assets (discounted) are martingales. We then define the time zero price of the option (divided by the time zero price of the bond/cash asset) to be the discounted expected value of its value at maturity in this newly constructed measure. By construction this discounted option price is a martingale and we now have three assets that are all martingales which implies there is no arbitrage possible. With this option price, called the "risk neutral" price, no arbitrage is possible under our newly constructed measure, but, because the original measure is an equivalent measure no arbitrage is possible here in the "real world" either and so this is our actual price.

I appreciate there are a few steps here that seem like a bit of a leap. It took me a while to appreciate them. The key things to appreciate are:

How everything being a martingale implies a lack of arbitrage. Girsanov allows you to make your (discounted) underlying a martingale.

How you can then just make the option price a martingale by construction. And then how lack of arbitrage under one measure means lack of arbitrage in any equivalent measure.

The discounting can also be a little confusing, but it's really just incorporating the time value of money into the calculations.

[0] Oksendal B . Stochastic Differential Equations. [1] Shreve S E. Stochastic Calculus for Finance II. [2] Joshi M S. The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance

<comment><USER20> From my (a very layman) understanding, the price of the security is stochastic can be assumed only during a very short period, which does not include major moves. If this is correct, does it mean all these models are useful only for market makers earning money from the spread, or they can be useful for retail traders?

<comment><USER19> There are other models that take into account jumps in the prices/market. As for retail traders using these models, I think it is not recommended and not practical.

<comment><USER20> Any names/links/etc to learn more about such models?

<comment><USER19> The Heston model has stochastic volatility. You can add jumps to this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_volatility_jump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_volatility_jump)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


AVX-512 Mask Registers, Again - <AUTHOR> https://travisdowns.github.io/blog/2020/05/26/kreg2.html <comment><USER2> I knew that the server variant of the Skylake core tacked on a few extra sections to enable AVX-512 and the extra L2 cache. [0] But I wasn't aware that the base consumer Skylake core already had a blank spot reserved for the AVX-512 register file.

In hindsight it makes sense, but it raises the question why in 5 years of iterating on the Skylake core, Intel hasn't tried to fill in that blank and implement at least one AVX-512 execution unit on their consumer chips. It seems like they could have gone for something running at half rate to avoid the severe down-clocking the server cores require when powering up the full AVX-512 unit, and they'd gain the benefits of the mask registers and other new AVX-512 features and stay years ahead of AMD (expected to deliver AVX-512 in 2022?). Instead, this seems to be another feature that has been delayed by Intel's 10nm failures.

[0] [https://images.anandtech.com/doci/11544/skylakedie_changevsc...](https://images.anandtech.com/doci/11544/skylakedie_changevsconsumer.png)

<comment><USER3> Why would you ever leave a blank spot for something on a chip?

Die area is expensive, yet transistors on it are free. Might as well take a crack at implementing it, and later disable it with fuses on models that 'shouldnt' have the feature.

Smells to me like perhaps corporate inefficiency making its way into the silicon - space was reserved in the layout for this feature, but then the team was late shipping a design, but they wouldn't allow anyone else to use that area either, because "we'll be ready any day now".

<comment><USER4> Modern chips are full of "logically blank" spots. That is, chips are often sold with 2 cores enabled when they physically contain 4 cores, sold with certain parts of the ISA disabled (AVX) even though the execution units are present, sold with less cache than physically present, etc.

Sometimes this is a necessary result of binning (e.g., those cache slices didn't work), but mostly it is a result of pricing strategy: you want to charge more to the customers who are willing to pay more, while still capturing those who will pay less.

Building chips is expensive, but not _that_ expensive on a unit basis, so whether you sell a die for $100 or $20,000 you are still making a (marginal) profit.

Given that context, it's not surprising that chips can also have _actually blank_ spots which are not enabled on any chip: in this case because the SKX and SKL designs are tightly bound, so the floorplan is almost the same for both chips.

This is probably either as a result of co-design, where SKL was designed with the future SKX in mind, meaning that SKX needed minimal changes to the core port over SKL, or as a result in a change of strategy: perhaps most SKL parts were originally slated to have AVX-512, on 10nm, but when 10nm was repeatedly delayed, the power or other impact was too high for most of the 14nm line and so AVX-512 was relegated to the SKX family. Who knows.

What is clear is that SKL was definitely laid out with AVX-512 in mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Who is going to be making heavy use of x87 or MMX (both obsolete) along with > AVX-512

Edge case and still not likely to cause contention: x87 fadd has 3-cycle latency while AVX has 4-c lat through ICL. If you need to prepare some constant with a chain of high-precision additions to broadcast into an AVX reg, it's faster. (Especially if the alternative is compensated addition.)

<comment><USER4> Yes, that is interesting. fadd also uses a different port (p5) as compared to SSE/AVX FP stuff which uses p01, so it seems likely that there is separate dedicated hardware for the x87 stuff, probably in the slice between the main vector pipes and this can also handle the 80 bit stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >Who is going to be making heavy use of x87 or MMX (both obsolete) along with AVX-512 mask registers? It seems extremely unlikely.

Wouldn't this be a performance issue if your linking an executable against libraries compiled for MMX, AVX.

<comment><USER7> x87 and MMX are both so incredibly old that I think it's pretty unlikely that you will be linking code that combines these, unless you have a 'dusty' library that nobody has the source code for anymore.

<comment><USER8> x87 is still providing some functionality which is more convenient to be used in some specific scenarios. I've used it intentionally even for some 64-bit code, where it was a perfect fit to all other requirements of the whole environment and the goals of the project.

When you don't need it, of course you should use your defaults. But there are still some specific scenarios where it definitely has its uses.

Just as an example of the advantages, x87 code is very compact and the numeric manipulations happen on the implicit hardware floating point stack, allowing for complex formulas fitting in only a few bytes (as the addresses are implicit). Also, as some ABIs still depend on it, targeting such ABIs makes the use of x87 unavoidable.

<comment><USER4> It also provides the 80-bit precision stuff which I guess could be useful for something.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


IBM model-M keyboard sound emulation to annoy co-workers - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/zevv/bucklespring/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER3> We live in a weird world where insane prison overcrowding like conditions and total lack of privacy exists in some dysfunctional workplaces, but its only culturally acceptable to complain about the quiet little keyboards. Sure if my stomach rumbles, we're so tightly packed that I just cost the company $500 by throwing ten developers out of "flow" for an hour and thats OK, but oh god no not a keyboard that clicks.

At home I think my model M is pretty quiet and its certainly not disruptive but my entire family is not required so spend ten hours per day within an arms reach of me as though we're on a small rowboat together. Also textile floors and textile drapes and my office has acoustic foam ceiling tiles makes an extremely quiet environment whereas a hipster office of steel glass and concrete might reflect and echo all sounds.

<comment><USER4> I am using a model M right now. I bought three at a computer fair for $3 each about 20 years ago to save space on my desk. The advantage, other than the tactile and sonic feedback, is that my wife can tell when I am working.

<comment><USER5> So can construction workers on the other side of the street.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have a Model M at home, and while I find that the sound helps me keep my rhythm while typing, it can be _really_ annoying in an office environment.

At my last job, being unhappy with the keyboard I had, I brought the Model M to work one day (it was just gathering dust at home). While typing was much more pleasant, I quickly discovered I had to stop typing whenever my coworker's phone rang. This, in turn, quickly became annoying for me, so at the end of the day, I packed it up and took it back home.

The Model M is one of the best keyboards I ever had the pleasure of using, but I would not like to inflict that level of noise to coworkers at the office.

(The best keyboard I ever used, interestingly, was a Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 made by Microsoft. I am not a big fan of Microsoft, but they really know how to build a great keyboard. Unfortunately, this was the only keyboard I ever managed to spill tea on... _and_ on its identical replacement. I took that as a hint that some higher power might not want me to use Microsoft keyboards.)

<comment><USER7> If you are so close to your coworkers that typing on your keyboard will disrupt their phone calls, you're too close.

If you have a real office, anything short of blasting Slayer won't disturb anyone else.

<comment><USER8> Have you ever used a Model M?

With a decent amount of enthusiasm, a Model M can disrupt phonecalls being made in another room entirely.

Best keyboard ever, but I also don't take mine to work any more, out of consideration for my coworkers. Also it's really big and heavy...

<comment><USER9> Add to the Model M the acoustics of a typical open office plan found at most startups and its unbearable. Its not uncommon to have a startup in a concrete loft type space with a group of people who insist on using whatever the modern $200 hipster version of a "buckling spring" keyboard is. It's "cred" man.

<comment><USER10> > using whatever the modern $200 hipster version of a "buckling spring" > keyboard is

Those would be Topre switches. Which makes the keyboard worth more than $200. ;)

They are good switches, and do rely on a spring, but they are quieter. And more expensive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I had many mechanical keyboards. Blue, brown and red cherry switches, topre, you name it. I got rid of most of them and I regret having spent the dollar on such a meme piece of equipment.

Elitism and fetichism aside, the sound and key travel is just a matter of preference and at the end of the day they won't make you type faster or help with RSI (the ones with high required actuation force can actually worsen it).

I wouldn't trade my current Microsoft Sculpt for any of my previous keyboards. Both my colleagues and my wrists are glad I switched.

My recommendation is that if you are going to pay a premium for a keyboard, at least focus on ergonomic features rather than gimmicks.

<comment><USER10> > at least focus on ergonomic features rather than gimmicks

FWIW, mechanical switches have helped with my own finger/wrist pain significantly, for one major reason: I don't have to bottom out the keys to make them register. The lack of a sudden stop reduces the stress put on my fingers by a significant amount over 8 hours. I can't make it through 8 hours typing on a mac chicklet keyboard, but I can with any of my mechanical keyboards (red, brown, topre, etc).

The durability of a mechanical keyboard also helps make up their up-front cost - where a rubber dome keyboard tends to only last me 6-8 months, I've yet to replace a mechanical keyboard due to key failure.

I also wouldn't underestimate the value of "personal preference" for something you use for well over 40 hours a week.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Shout-out to Unicomp[0], who make new USB Model M's from the original specs. I love mine and my wife hates it because it's too loud and clakkety. Their website is horrid and the fit-and-finish on the product leaves a bit to be desired, but the switches are great.

[0] [http://www.pckeyboard.com/](http://www.pckeyboard.com/)

<comment><USER13> Yep they make pretty decent clones. I have special edition they did on Massdrop but sadly the 70g keys are causing major pain and I have to use my other keyboard with Topre switches for doing work :(

<comment><USER14> THE PAIN!

I'm such a fool.

It was so terrible the first time. I wanted to cut off my hands. It went away and I got back to work. Eventually I had to stop work every hour from the pain.

It can't be the keyboard! My precious PS/2 buckling spring model M! I've been using it for fifteen years without trouble! THIS IS THE BEST KEYBOARD IN THE WORLD! I am such a fool.

No more model M, no more pain.

<comment><USER15> I have no idea what the pain is, as you haven't specified, but I'm glad you don't have it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> That cracks me up. Back in the 80s, I wrote a little TSR for a guy who missed the Atari 800 keyboard click tone on his new clone PC. I had wired a switch in line with the speaker in my Atari so that I could turn off the tone and not wake my roommate.

The Atari 800 also had some fun event sounds it made whenever it read or wrote a floppy disk sector or had an I/O error. People got used to those audible feedbacks, just like the physical drive crunching noises and other "side- channel" outputs.

</comment><comment><USER17> I worked with someone who had a Model M. I thought he was a super fast typer, until I realized the keys make a sound on the way down and the way up, making his perceived words per minute (PWPM) twice is actual WPM.

</comment><comment><USER8> Serious question in comedy thread time -

Does anyone know of another keyboard that's as comfortable and all-round wonderful to use as the Model M, but quiet?

<comment><USER18> To run down the switches (that provide physical feedback).

-MX Cherry Blues: Their action has the same _feel_ of a Model M (kind of) they only require ~1/2 the force to switch as a Model M. Their sound is also quieter (then a model M) they're still much louder then a rubber dome. It has a higher pitch _clip /clop_ rather then the Model M's _thunk_.

-MX Cherry Greens: A stiffer blue (commonly used for space bars).

-MX Cherry Browns: Same action as a blue, but rubber dampened to be quieter actually inline with a rubber dome. They still provide the physical feedback of a Blue.

-MX Cherry Clear: A stiffer brown.

-MX Cherry Whites: Somewhere between a Brown and a Blue in sound and force. They still provide feedback.

<comment><USER19> MX browns have a completely different mechanism than blues- there isn't rubber in there, it works like this[1] and blue works like this.[2]

[1][http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/Br...](http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/Brown.gif)

[2][http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/Bl...](http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/Blue.gif)

<comment><USER18> I was speaking of the _feel_ of the action. The brown still has the physical bump caused by the outward swing on the guide arm much like the blue.

There isn't the extra chunk of free riding plastic that helps generate a lower sound tho. I was purely wrong the rubber wrapping, that was just me being ill- informed.

<comment><USER19> I think there's a pretty distinct difference in feeling though- once a blue switch clicks, you don't get any more tactile feedback from the switch because the part that gets feedback is sitting on the bottom, but with browns it's still rubbing up against the contacts- which leads to browns feeling a bit mushier after the click.

Mind you, if you're in a noise sensitive environment then browns are definitely what you want.

<comment><USER18> Well the blue switch _breaks_ meaning the force required to depress the switch changes. But this _break_ occurs after the switch is triggered. This _break_ is also when the sound is generated. Which again, after the key is triggered.

Buckling Springs is the only switch where the break, sound, and switch engage all happen in the same instant ,by the same mechanism (the spring buckling).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I fear you're missing out on a large chunk of the lucrative hipster market by not supporting OSX. Any chance?

<comment><USER21> Author here. I've looked into support for Mac OS some time ago. The audio code is portable enough given OpenAL, but getting global keyboard events on Mac is not trivial. It also doesn't help that I don't own a mac myself for development...

<comment><USER22> Not owning an Apple computer is the biggest problem. I really wish it were possible to cross-compile into macOS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Here's what it sounds like, for those who don't know:

[https://youtu.be/ujd6l_9TUmU](https://youtu.be/ujd6l_9TUmU)

</comment><comment><USER15> A lot of the new clicky keyboards are sold at incredibly high premiums, usually as gaming keyboards, or as specialty items - see Das, HH, etc.

These are ripoffs. You can get a Model M from Unicomp for between $80 and $100, which is significantly cheaper, and feels way better than most of the MX keys.

<comment><USER24> I have a Das Keyboard Model S for Mac that I got for $125. Yes, that's at least 25% more expansive than your example, but as a well paid engineer it's still in the same ballpark an, it's made for Mac which you don't find in the real Model Ms. I also happened to really like the look of the Model S vs a lot of other keyboards.

While I've scoffed at some that are well over $200, there are certainly more modern conveniences that come with these more expensive ones:

\- You (often) can choose the type of switch in the keyboard

\- Media/macro keys

\- USB hub/ports

\- Backlit (if you like that kind of thing)

If you know what you're getting for the price, it's not a ripoff, a price premium, sure. I've had my Das for, I think, 6 years now and it's been flawless. If they're all constructed as well as the Model M and enjoy nearly the same lifespans the price difference is effectively not even a factor in my decision.

<comment><USER15> That's fair enough, but the ones that are closer to $200 are crazy.

As for the rest of what you mentioned, the hub's nice, but macros are what the function keys are for, and I never really got the point of backlighting. But that's just a personal preference.

As for the switches, I haven't tried all the MX switches, but I really like the Model M feel, and the quiet MXs provide no feedback... yuck.

<comment><USER24> I loved the old Model M I somehow got as an impressionable youth, back when PS/2 keyboards were fancy and USB keyboards weren't a thing yet.

Eventually I moved away to USB keyboards and hated the mush feel and looked around for options but balked at the price. Finally I ran into a couple of guys who'd made the jump (not to Das though) and I started looking around. I found the DKs to be really good looking and I really like how they feel (I've got the clickiest switches they offer for the Mac).

I think over $200 for a keyboard is crazy as well, especially if it's because people are getting conned into thinking they're getting more than they really are, but I won't begrudge someone's decision if it came down to, "I know what I'm getting and I'm fine paying this premium because of [insert deciding factor]"

I wouldn't do it, but 10 years ago I wouldn't have spent $120-150 on a keyboard either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I think the annoyance factor could be amped-up a bit more if you mapped each key to a digital drum kit.

High hat backspace!

</comment><comment><USER26> It's work-in-progress, but you can also emulate an IBM Selectric. Much classier and much, much more annoying.

[https://github.com/rbanffy/selectric- mode](https://github.com/rbanffy/selectric-mode)

<comment><USER27> I noticed this in the Spacemacs config and have it set up for occasional use. Makes writing documentation feel more important.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Stodgy Company Policy

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>----

Let's see here. Let's make our workplace into more of a "Startup."

Modern office environment with no privacy. Check!

Loud noisy stuff and people in cramped conditions. Check!

"Agile" methodologies to heap requirements on Devs the night before they deploy. DOUBLE Check!

After hours work required? Oh you betcha!

Telecommuting as often as you like? Oh hecks naw we don't trust you shifty eyed developers.

Ability to work on side projects for short time. NOPE! Only approved projects thank you.

Good equipment that isn't bogged down my corporate spyware. Now you're kidding me!

Listen to input on prioritizing projects. What do developers know about project planning bah!

</comment><comment><USER29> I don't need an emulator :) I still think my buckling spring Unicomp (basically a Model M) is the best keyboard I've ever used since the IBM unit that came with my original PC:

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanbayne/12295182336](https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanbayne/12295182336)

</comment><comment><USER30> Pfft, peasants. Just get an actual Model M.

<comment><USER31> Word! here is mine [https://www.flickr.com/photos/mortenteinum/27280410414/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/mortenteinum/27280410414/)

Not using this at work since we are in an open landscape. HHKB is a much better choice here.

<comment><USER32> Where can I get custom keycaps for it?

All the caps everywhere are for modern switches.

<comment><USER31> Unicomp have some

[http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/category/Buttons](http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/category/Buttons)

Artisans [http://www.k3kc.com/?post_type=product&s=ibm](http://www.k3kc.com/?post_type=product&s=ibm)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I thought of trying this to use the ridiculous CSI/hacker beep sound at each keypress. Replaced the .wav files with a short beep sound I had once downloaded and works fine (couldn't stand it after a minute). If anyone mad enough to try it, the .zip containing the properly named .wav files is here[1].

Edit: Sorry I'm new to sharing .zip files - uploaded to another site - <USER2> updated.

[1]: [https://filetea.me/t1sNqOwXEOAR2xkCjNF9hbptQ](https://filetea.me/t1sNqOwXEOAR2xkCjNF9hbptQ)

<comment><USER34> Seems to be a broken link - any chance of a re-upload?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I used to work for a company that had a box full of Model M keyboards that people _didn 't want to use_. I knicked one when I left, and unfortunately It's since died.

If you work for a company that bought any IBM servers in the last 20 years, there is a chance you'll find something similar (probably not actual model M's, but still damn good keyboards!) in the server room spares boxes.

Speak to your friendly SysAdmin and see if you can strike a deal :-)

<comment><USER15> They didn't want to use Model M's?

Are they programmers? If they are, check for face masks or holoprojectors: they may be dangerous aliens.

Or maybe they're just really strange.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Could it be as annoying as typing on a "real" keyboard?

[http://www.usbtypewriter.com](http://www.usbtypewriter.com)

<comment><USER37> I know Jack Zylkin personally and was there at Hive76 when he made the first USB Typewriter. It was a joke that took on a life of its own and ended up playing its own joke on its master. He made the first one for a contest on Instructables.com, intending to sell a kit version for anyone to make anything into a keyboard. He got so many calls and emails asking for pre-made typewriters that he basically had a business drop in his lap. I know they originally started out around $250, fully assembled, but last I checked he had bumped up the price to at least $700 just to try to curb demand (building the first or second is fun, definitely not the 15th or 30th) It somewhat unintuitively had the opposite effect as he started showing up in a number of luxury goods blogs.

They are quite labor intensive to build. He was never able to find someone with both the manual dexterity, electronics knowledge, and willingness to scrape by on a pittance to be able to live an independent life to bring on as help.

<comment><USER38> Wish I'd gotten one when they were $250... at the current price (over $1250) just can't bring myself to do it... though sourcing original materials is probably part of the increased cost, and the labor. Really cool concept. I have a spare computer setup to keep people off my desktop, at home, and this would be cool to have on that.

<comment><USER37> At least 5 years ago he was starting to talk about how it was getting harder and harder to find intact typewriters. Apparently there is a very limited, dwindling supply, thanks to people converting them to keyboards.

If you can find a typewriter of your own, he sells kits for much, much less. They don't require any soldering and the logic board comes pre-programmed, you just have to pay attention to the instructions.

<comment><USER38> Mechanical typewriters are mostly antiques, and can't imagine how many have been recycled or in landfill space over the years at this point. So I would think that sourcing would be the biggest issue in this. Though having used a mechanical typewriter when I was young, it's hard to imagine many people preferring the experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I still have my old Model M. Unfortunately, I was banned from using it in the house (by the girlfriend), but it is now connected to a FreeBSD box (which still has PS/2 connectors) in the garage.

One does not realize how truly annoying the sound is until one sits in a room and has to listen to someone typing on it with reckless abandon. That's how she convinced me to stop using it.

<comment><USER38> May want to look at some cherry mx brown or blue keyboards... I like brown better, imho closer to m in terms of feel... that said I haven't tried one with mx-clear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Is it working for anyone with Windows 10? I installed OpenAL, and then ran buckle.exe - it silently crashes every time I start typing.

<comment><USER41> I had the same problem too. I'm using Windows 10 with the anniversary update.

(I'm not sure its use of a global hook stored in an EXE is safe anyway. I think you have to have these things in DLLs, because the hook runs in each process's context, so each process needs its own copy of the code. Obviously it must work for at least some people though... I wonder how? Will have to try building it when I get a moment.)

<comment><USER40> Not sure. I tried with Windows 7 compatibility mode as well, but no use.

<comment><USER41> The keyboard hook thing is safe - turns out the low-level keyboard hook is special, and it runs in the installing thread's context.

Having nothing better to do this evening I wrote my own version, which should run fine on Windows 10: [https://github.com/tom- seddon/GfyKeys](https://github.com/tom-seddon/GfyKeys)

It's very possible this isn't quite the same as the original, which I've still yet to actually experience - however you do get a click each time you press and release a key, so it's presumably not a million miles off.

<comment><USER41> Just noticed it does 3d sound positioning... hmmmm... I wonder if that makes a noticeable difference?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Two devs from my current company got themselves Razer keyboards, which look very much like Model M keyboard, albeit it's all-black.

If it were not for video surveillance, I would've already covered them in construction-foamed them shut. They are _obnoxiously_ loud.

<comment><USER22> I use a Das Keyboard, which I think is probably similar. I actually felt bad for a while and asked all of my coworkers if it was too loud and I should use a different keyboard. They all insisted that the noise doesn't bother them. Now I just type with abandon.

It's a lovely keyboard. It feels like silk under my fingers. Lovely, clicky, noisy silk. It was actually left in the company by a former employee, and I nabbed it at once.

<comment><USER43> Usually if you have to ask "is this too X?" It is and you know it internally.

They are being socially polite. See if their productivity dropped, they are out of the office more, they exclude you from events, or if they quit.

<comment><USER22> I don't see them doing any of those things.

Also, I just realised my keyboard isn't quite _as_ noisy as a model M. I don't think it has quite the same spring mechanism. It's clicky, but apparently tolerable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> I use a mechanical keyboard with brown Cherry MX switches and am hated enough already. Sometimes my coworker even leaves the room. Good thing is, he's one of my best friends otherwise I probably wouldn't be allowed to use that keyboard at all.

But cool project!

<comment><USER45> Yea I used to have a cherry mx blue keyboard but that became too annoying for my coworkers and felt bad so I switched to topres

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Alas, I can't seem to build this. It doesn't find the OpenAL libraries in Ubuntu, even though I installed them:

/tmp/bucklespring/main.c:255: undefined reference to `alSourcePlay'

/tmp/bucklespring/main.c:256: undefined reference to `alGetError'

etc.

<comment><USER47> Try now! Looks like the fix for that was merged nine minutes ago :D

<comment><USER46> This is fantastic, and I'm sure that, for every new fan, five more people want to kill you.

<comment><USER47> To be clear, the project isn't mine - the author looks to be [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=zevv](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=zevv)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Yeah, I think I'd move companies if I had to sit next to this noise all day:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJzmky2DaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJzmky2DaI)

</comment><comment><USER49> I work for IBM and found a couple of rather old and somewhat broken Model Ms with RJ45 connectors (!) lying around in our hardware lab. Anyone know whether adaptors for RJ45 keyboards are a thing?

<comment><USER31> You can get a SDL to USB cable on ebay

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/SDL-to-USB-SOARERS-CONVERTER- Clicky-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/SDL-to-USB-SOARERS-CONVERTER-Clicky- Keyboard-Cable-6ft-IBM-Lexmark-Model-M-/271816109375)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I am using this right now on my laptop. It's _perfect_.

</comment><comment><USER51> I have a coworker who uses a mechanical keyboard. It really ruins Skype meetings. I may use this to counter her.

</comment><comment><USER52> Very cool but the latency is too slow to make this go along with my normal keyboard sounds.

</comment><comment><USER53> I've got so much time for the dedication to just being annoying here haha. Excellent

</comment><comment><USER54> 98.6% C!</comment>